1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mail processing machine (face-canceller) which can arrange mail, cancel postage stamps, and sort mail according to whether the address is written in print or is written in handwriting.
The mail determined to have address characters written in print is further sorted with respect to zip codes by a zip code reader, while the mail determined to have address characters written in handwriting is further sorted with respect to zip codes by human labor.
2. Description of the Background Art
There exist mail processing machines for facing mail, discriminating whether the characters are written in print or in handwriting, cancelling stamps, and sorting the mail according to printed mail and handwritten mail. In this conventional mail processing machine, however, since the two entire surfaces of a mail are scanned by two optical character readers (OCRs) to discriminate printed mail from handwritten mail or vice versa, there exist some problems in that the cost of the OCRs is high and the processing time is relatively long. This is because when the front surface or the back surface of a piece of mail is not determined because of the absence of a postage stamp, the mail characters must be read and discriminated on both the surfaces of the mail.